There is virtually no doubt that one of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s closest friends looted millions of dollars from a prominent taxpayer-funded not-for-profit organization — and there is no doubt that Silver enabled the ripoff.
Silver’s relationship with William Rapfogel, longtime leader of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, is one more damning reason why Assembly Democrats must dump Silver from the speakership. So, too, is Silver’s loyalty to Rapfogel’s wife Judy, who serves as Silver’s chief of staff.
Rapfogel has all but admitted guilt. According to prosecutors, he siphoned $5 million out of the Council over 20 years, using much of the money for illicit contributions to politicians who funded the group and keeping $1 million for himself and his family.
Authorities recovered a total of $400,000 in cash — some of it stashed in the bedroom closet of the Rapfogels’ Lower East Side co-op — and discovered that he gave their son $100,000 to buy a house. Mrs. Rapfogel pleads ignorance to the presence of what must have been bricks of cash among her husband’s neckwear. For perspective, $400,000 equates to 4,000 $100 bills.
While Silver appears willing to take his old friend at her word, few others will be so accepting. The result is that that Silver and his top staff have again debased the public’s trust in the Legislature.
Silver is a past master of tolerating abuses in his inner circle.
He failed to fire former counsel Michael Boxley after a rape accusation, only to have him hauled out of the Assembly in handcuffs two years later on a second assault charge.
He covered up sexual harassment by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez — paving the way for Lopez to leer at and grope more young women on his staff.
He retained the top lawyer who steered the Lopez case, Bill Collins — until it was discovered that Collins had mishandled sexual harassment charges against yet another assemblyman.
And, with Judy Rapfogel, he engineered a system of so-called member items that empowered Assembly members to funnel special grants to favored nonprofits — often then reaping campaign money from friends associated with the groups. Silver poured hundreds of thousands every year into the Met Council, an organization whose social services have been held in high regard.
Silver and Judy Rapfogel facilitated William Rapfogel’s theft. They were also the beneficiaries of his crimes. Both must go, Silver most critically.
